A bulletin for the Australian Food Industry August 2000
Contents: Bacteria in minimally processed lettuce | More on monosodium glutamate | Wallis Lake oyster contamination | Salmonellae in fruit juices | Algal blooms | Safe Food Australia | Refrigerated retail cabinets | Ciguatera poisoning
Safe Food Australia
The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Council (ANZFSC) agreed in July 2000 to approve two of the food safety standards developed by ANZFA as part of a food safety reform package. The standards are: Standard 3.2.2 Food Safety Practices, and Standard 3.2.3 Food Premises and Equipment. A third enabling Standard, 3.1.1, Interpretation and Application was also adopted.
The final standard in the reform package, Food Safety Programs, will be considered again by the Council in 2001 after further research on the most cost-effective means of introducing food safety standards.
ANZFA has now issued a guideline titled Safe Food Australia written primarily for food businesses affected by the new Standards and for government agencies responsible for enforcing food safety standards. The guidelines are available for comment until 30 September 2000. They will be amended subject to comments received and a second edition is expected to be available in November of this year.
This is an important document as it provides examples showing how the requirements of the Standards can be applied and also some additional sources of reference to help businesses and enforcement agencies understand and comply with the requirements. The full document together with appendixes contains over 200 pages.
a food business must, when cooling potentially hazardous food, cool the food:
(a) within two hours from 60°C to 21°C; and
(b) within a further four hours from 21°C to 5°C,
unless the food business demonstrates that the cooling process used will not adversely affect the microbiological safety of the food.
No justification is given for the cooling regime outlined above in the guidelines. However, they do contain a section on 'Alternative cooling processes' which outlines briefly how a food business may demonstrate that the cooling process used will not adversely affect the microbiological safety of the food.
In the primary reference cited in the guidelines under 'Alternative cooling processes', the authors from Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association make it clear they regard the target organism during cooling of meat products as Clostridium perfringens and the experimental work reported in their Review no. 8 concentrates on this organism. While the rate of cooling requirement in standard 3.2.2 will control C. perfringens multiplication, it is not based on this target and is much more restrictive than that considered acceptable by the UK workers.
It will be important for food businesses using alternative cooling procedures to define carefully what the target organism for their procedure is and they may have to seek expert advice if the procedure is to meet auditing requirements.
An essential part of the over-riding conclusion of the UK publication is that 'in taking steps to accelerate cooling it is important not to create added opportunity for the much more serious hazard of post-cooking microbiological contamination.'
Contact details for submissions are:
The Project Manager, Food Safety Program
Australia New Zealand Food Authority
Telephone 02 6271 2224
Food Science Australia
PO Box 52, North Ryde 1670. Tel +61 2 9490 8397 Fax +61 2 9490 8499
Email enquiries@csiro.au